Latest archive & research newsletter

New resource: Midland Railway timetable finding aid

Working under the ‘Partners in Excellence’ scheme with the museum, Midland Railway Society members David Geldard and Roy Burrows have been working on a document that will help researchers locate public and working timetables of the Midland Railway and its constituent companies. There are three main repositories where such documents are kept and are publicly available – the National Railway Museum, The National Archives and the Midland Railway Study Centre.

It is intended that the work will be updated as additions are made to the three collections and all those involved hope that it will prove a useful tool for guiding researchers to those timetables which they may wish to study. The finished work can now be freely downloaded from the Study Centre website.

Railway Work, Life and Death

The Railway Work, Life and Death project is a joint initiative between the University of Portsmouth and the National Railway Museum. We’re aiming to make it easier to find out about railway worker accidents in Britain between 1911 and 1915 – who was involved, what they were doing on the railways, what happened to them and why. Although today most people don’t realise it, working on the railways 100 years ago was incredibly dangerous, with hundreds killed and tens of thousands injured each year.

In this project a team of volunteers from the NRM have painstakingly searched through reports produced by the state-appointed Railway Inspectorate between 1911 and 1915, detailing investigations into railway worker accidents. They’ve extracted the details found in the reports – things like names, ages, roles, companies and details of the accident – and entered them into a spreadsheet.

More information about the project can be found on the website and and the project leader at Portsmouth, Dr Mike Esbester is updating the blog on a regular basis. He would welcome feedback and your thoughts on the next steps to expand the project.

New additions to our archive catalogue

We are continuing to move our old archive lists to our new online archive catalogue. These are just a few of the archives that have recently been added.

Papers of E. J. Morris relating to the Pullman Car Company - In 1921 E.J. Morris joined the Pullman Car Company Limited as a messenger boy and worked his way up to General Manager in 1962. His papers include photo albums, drawings, correspondence, agreements and contracts, press cuttings, photographic material, published and printed items and lecture notes on the Pullman Company.

Papers of Arthur Osborne Ladell – These papers cover the career of Arthur Osborne Ladell who worked for the Great Eastern Railway (GER) and subsequently for the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) when the GER was absorbed into the LNER in 1921.

Papers relating to the estate of Robert Stephenson – This archive consists of papers relating to the winding-up of the estate of Robert Stephenson MP, including stocks and shares and correspondence with Ellen Stephenson, widow of George and step-mother of Robert.

Papers of Captain George Gibson Mallory – This collection comprises the papers of Captain George Gibson Mallory of the London & North Eastern (LNER) ferry s.s. Malines. The material includes letters, reports, newspaper cuttings and many official documents relating to Captain Mallory’s earlier seafaring career and the part played by s.s. Malines in the evacuation of Rotterdam and Dunkirk in May - June 1940.

Papers of Harold Holcroft - These papers include correspondence, a scrapbook, engineering plans, technical specifications, photographs, an unpublished manuscript, and notebooks relating to field tests. They cover Holcroft's time at Great Western Railway, South Eastern & Chatham, and Southern Railway.